Govt Supplies Cannabis for Utrecht Psychotics

THE HAGUE, 12/09/13 - The health ministry‚Äôs Medicinal Cannabis Bureau is to supply cannabis for a Utrecht experiment on the supply of hashish to people with psychiatric problems.

This is a cannabis variant that subdues anxieties, psychotic attacks and insomnia instead of provoking these as is the case with some other types of cannabis. So says the responsible Utrecht Alderman, Victor Everhardt,

Utrecht has some 80 addicts with a chronic psychotic disturbance on its streets. They are difficult to treat and this is likely because the cannabis that they use provokes psychosis. A small group is allowed to participate in the treatment experiment for which the ministry is supplying the weed.

Addiction institutions and researchers at the Amsterdam Medical Centre (AMC) will investigate whether the controlled provision of the right type of cannabis helps the addicts. The experiment will start in the autumn.

The treatment experiment is one of the two initiatives that the municipality is supported to get the use of cannabis out of the criminal sphere. The other experiment is the establishment of the Social Cannabis Club Domstad (SCCD), in which a hundred adults grow cannabis together for their own use. The intention is to take the harvest out of the criminal circuit.

The SCCD will apply for an exemption so that the growing of cannabis for own use is not punishable. Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten has already indicated that he will put a spanner in the works, but according to Everhardt, it is not up to him at all. ''The SCCD is not applying for an exemption at Justice but at Health, because the club was set up to combat the negative effects of cannabis on health."

Utrecht municipality had come up with the cannabis club more than a year ago as its first thought. Meanwhile, similar plans have emerged in Rotterdam. Towns like Eindhoven, Tilburg and Leeuwarden are also considering legalised cannabis-growing.